Wednesday, August 10, 2016

You got to hand it to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. When he wants to say something, he goes both guns blazing, fully confident that nothing he says or does will make him lose any of his existing supporters (though he already has) but will win new ones instead (which does seem to happen as well, so it sort of balances out). This Tuesday August 9 however, he may have finally said one word too many, as NBC reports.

During a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina Trump led off one of his speech points with the assertion that “Hillary [Clinton] wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment”, which was answered by a wall of boos against his Democratic rival from the audience. What he said next would be the talk of the nation. “By the way, if she gets to pick, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know. But I tell you what, that will be a horrible day, if Hillary gets to put her judges in."

It seemed innocuous at the time he said it, but as footage from his rally made the rounds online, a darker subtext appears to be popping up in the ears of Trump’s opposition. The Second Amendment of the US Constitution if you would recall, protects the “right to bear arms” for all Americans. Due to the amount of ambiguity in his wording, certain political observers couldn’t help but be alarmed at the worst possible implication: that Trump just egged on the 2 nd Amendment supporters to take drastic action against Clinton.

Already the speech has garnered the expected responses. Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook put his two cents in on the growing uproar: “What Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the president of the United States should not suggest violence in any way.” Even Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy was of a mind that Trump’s comments ought not to be treated as a political misstep, saying, “It’s an assassination threat, seriously upping the possibility of a national tragedy and crisis.”

Ex-CIA director Michael Hayden was quick to opine to as well. "If someone else had said that said outside the hall, he'd be in the back of a police wagon now with the Secret Service questioning him" he said in an interview to CNN’s Jake Tapper. He wants Trump to understand that "You're not just responsible for what you say. You are responsible for what people hear."

The Trump camp on the other hand dismisses the gloomy opinions as another overreaction by the media. Spokesperson Jason Miller explains it best from their viewpoint: “It’s called the power of unification. Second amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won’t be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump.”